In the rapidly developing area of digital technology, there is an expanding use of networks with multi-client users which can be connected to the multitudinous terminals of the Internet or to the limited number of terminals in an Intranet set-up for a particular group or set of clients.
Such type of networks with multiple numbers of connected clients present many problems in that many of the client stations are limited to particular types of content format protocol delivery. Further, when it is desired to communicate with FAX machines and telephones, in addition to E-Mail, again, there are specialized formats and protocols that are required to enable these types of communications to take place with these specialized appliances or terminals.
It has become more and more desirable to provide systems and methodology which enable clients using one type of personal computer and its specialized protocol requirements to communicate with other clients having different personal computers with different formats and protocol requirements. Likewise, it is desirable to enable a user client's personal computer, using one type of protocol, to be able to communicate with FAX machines, telephones and E-Mail clients, which require different content formats and different protocols for communication delivery.
Earlier network technologies and even the majority of present network technologies involve slow and complex software systems and methods in order to enable a client having a document in one particular format, and using a particular protocol to communicate with another client terminal having a different protocol or with terminals having the protocols and formats used for the FAX machine or the protocols used for the telephone. These often involve long, drawn-out translation procedures which were slow, cumbersome and subject to reliability problems.
It would be most desirable to provide a network where any client, no matter what format his document consists of, or what his personal computer protocol system utilizes, could create, originate or author a document and enable this document's content to be transmitted to and received by personal computer clients or appliances using different types of protocol so as to be received by appliances such as FAX machines, telephones and E-Mail users. Heretofore, this has not been done with any great efficiency whereby an originator or author could originate a text or message in his own personal format and using his personal appliance protocol, and send it to multiple receiver users and multiple receiver appliances without any further complications other than sending his text or message into the network after it has been automatically processed and handled by a server which distributes his origination in any and all formats necessary to be received by any of the receiving appliances using the compatible protocol. Such a system and methodology is now possible with the presently described system and methodology.
Thus, it is a most desirable result when there is provided software which handles and solves the problem of how to target and distribute information from a single source to many types of receiving appliances attached to a network without incurring any difficulties or problems involving the varied characteristics of each appliance.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is seen a flexible, multi-user network system whereby a client-user is capable of authoring text, graphics, or messages which can be distributed to multiple receiver terminals regardless of the format and protocol requirements that these receiver terminal appliances are subject to.
As seen in FIG. 1, a client personal computer 10 which uses a Web Browser is connected to network 40 as is also the personal computer client 20 and the mail user client 30. This could also include a unit designated as the Com.Unity Browser in the personal computer client 33 which is a specialized unit described hereinafter.
As seen in FIG. 1, the client Personal Computer (PC) 10 uses the HTTP protocol (Hyper Text Transport Protocol). This is a client-server protocol used for information sharing on the Internet and is the basis of use for the World-Wide Web (WWW). The PC client 20 is seen to have a Web Browser using the FTP (File Transfer Protocol). This is a set of TCP/IP commands used to log onto a network, to list directories and to copy files. It can also be used for translation between ASCII and the EBCDIC. ASCII denotes "American Standard Code for Information Exchange". It involves a binary code for text, as well as for communication and printer control. It is used for most communications and is the built-in character code of most mini-computers and personal computers. ASCII is a 7-bit code providing 128 character combinations. EBCDIC indicates "Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code". This is an 8-bit code having 256 combinations that stores one alpha-numeric character or two decimal digits in one byte. This binary code is used for text, for communications, and printer control.
The Mail User Client 30 is seen to use the SMTP protocol which denotes Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. This is a messaging protocol used by software applications to send E-Mail to receiving terminals.
A further client shown in FIG. 1 is a News Network User Client which carries information using NNTP protocol (News Network Transfer Protocol), which is a client-server based TCP/IP protocol.
As seen in FIG. 1, the Network 40 is connected for communication to the Server 50. The Server operates as a computer in a network shared by multiple users. It can act as a file server whereby it uses a high-speed computer to store the programs and store the data files which are shared by the various users on the network. Sometimes this is called a "network server", since it acts like a remote disk drive. The Server 50 can also act as a database server in that it is dedicated to database storage and retrieval.
The Server 50 is seen to provide a multiple number of server processes 52a, 52b, 52c . . . 52n, which provide programs which implement the operation of the Server 50.
Within the Server 50 is a database 58 which provides an electronically stored collection of data. The database 58 is managed by the database manager 54, which involves software that allows a user to manage multiple data files. In the present embodiment, the module 54 is a specialized database manager called OSMOS. OSMOS is a specialized system which is an object/relational database management system.
The OSMOS database manager 54 provides software that enables database management capability for traditional programming languages, such as COBOL, BASIC, and C and C++. It also enables the storage and retrieval of data from the database 58.
The operational functioning of the OSMOS database manager 54 is handled by the unit designated Schema 56, which defines the entire database. The Schema 56 sets up the organization of and the ways that the entire database 58 is used. A Methods Library 55 in FIG. 1 is called upon by the Object Manager in response to application operation invocations. The Method Library is user-written.
Further, as seen in FIG. 1, the Server software processes module 52 is connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network 60 (PSTN), which provides connection lines to the telephone 80 using the Interactive Voice Response protocol (IVR). This involves the generation of voice output by a computer. It provides pre-recorded information either with or without selection by the caller. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) also allows interactive manipulation of a database. The use of Audiotex is a voice response (IVR) application that allows users to enter and retrieve information over the telephone. In response to a voice menu, users press the keys or answer questions to select their way down a path of choices. It could be used for obtaining the latest financial quotes, as well as for ordering various products. It can also be built into interactive systems to allow databases to be changed. These interactive systems can use VIS where VIS denotes Voice Information Service, which involves a variety of voice processing service applications.
The FAX appliance 70 of FIG. 1 operates on a special protocol such as Group 3 Facsimile Protocol which is widely used for facsimile transmission.
Among the problems characteristic of earlier networks, was the lack of continuity of service. Thus, in many cases, the user client had to shut down his operation, since he needed to do a specialized communication operation in order to make use of voice transmission and FAX transmission. The present system eliminates any such need for delay or shutdown in order to handle telephone and FAX transmission. Further, the present system provides a means for communication between multi-users, together with a simpler and more expanded method for sending data to different types of appliances using different formats and operating under different protocols. This is handled by the Server 50, which provides specialized techniques, as will be discussed hereinafter, which permit a single originator to communicate to multiple different types of recipient terminal appliances. These terminal appliances include both telephone, FAX machines and E-Mail and User-PC clients operating on different protocols. These specialized features are provided for by the utilization of a specialized server having a controlled database manager 54 designated OSMOS where the protocol envelopes for handling document content are controlled by the server processes 52.
The Server module 50 provides a mechanism that enables secure communications to occur between the clients, such as 10, 20, 30, 33 etc., and the Server 50. It provides a database repository for all documents, together with the ability to index and search the documents with a powerful search engine. The search engine and its supporting database 58 uses the OSMOS 54 database manager to manage the storage, verification, and access to resident documents which include embedded graphics, sound clips, and video clips, as shown in FIG. 8.
As will be discussed hereinafter, the Server 50 includes a set of conversion filters (converters) which provide "On-The-Fly" conversion of documents authored in one specific format to be transformed into other formats for display, for printing, for E-Mail or voice or for FAX appliances. The server software "converts" an incoming document request into the appropriate format that is required by the "outgoing" client display device, whether it be a FAX appliance, a Hyper Text Mark-up Language Browser, a File Transfer Protocol Browser or a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Browser 10 or voice for the telephone 80. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) software, is used to handle requests from standard telephones and HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) software is used to deal with requests coming from the Internet.
Thus, the many problems and delays involved in older systems which required specialized handling in order to communicate between one client having one format and protocol and another client or appliance having a different format and protocol, are no longer the case with regard to the presently described system and the methodology used herein.